ARCHITECTS behind the £4.8billion SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles want to help redevelop St James’ Park.
Newcastle’s Saudi owners have reportedly been considering the prospect of building a new ground.
Alternatively, they could decide to completely renovate and modernise the club’s current stadium.
Reports have claimed that officials would prefer to expand St James’ Park rather than move to a new ground.
And according to I Sport, representatives from HKS, the architect company behind LA’s SoFi Stadium and the AT&T Stadium in Texas, recently held talks with the Magpies.
Alex Thomas, the regional design director for sports and entertainment at HKS, believes he can help come up with a solution to Newcastle’s current dilemma.
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St James’ Park’s 52,350 capacity is not deemed to be big enough for the club, but the prospect of an expansion has been made difficult due to listed buildings surrounding the area.
Thomas believes options are open to expand capacity while also giving the stadium a “wow” factor.
He also suggests a roof similar to that of the newly redeveloped Santiago Bernabeu or a bridge across the top of the stadium could be made possible.
The HKS principle told I: “Newcastle is going to demand some really innovative, different thinking, it’s going to need dialogue with planners, safety authorities, it’s going to be need the club to be brave, to have a vision and stick with it.
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“There’s no doubt some pretty interesting outcomes that could manifest itself there if the client really wants to push it. I think it would look very different to any other football ground we’ve seen elsewhere.”
HKS designed the SoFi Stadium in LA which opened in 2020.
The 70,240-seat stadium can hold up to 100,000 people for certain events.
The AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was also built by the architect company.
It holds up to 80,000 people but is expandable to 100,000.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
